Latest updates from Cointelegraph’s team on the ground

Disclaimer: This article is updated all day long. All time codes are in the UTC time zone, and updates are in reverse order (the latest update is placed at the top).

Web Summit, one of the premier world tech conferences, is back live in Lisbon, Portugal. The event brings together the founders and CEOs of technology companies, fast-growing startups, policymakers and heads of state to discuss the future of the tech industry.

In 2022, Web3 is one of the biggest topics of tech discussion, and Web Summit 2022 is no different. Cointelegraph has set up a team for the event to present the latest updates in a real-time fashion.

The opening event of Web Summit saw the mayor of Lisbon, the minister of the economy of Portugal and Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao as keynote speakers.

Carlos Moedas, mayor of Lisbon, stressed the importance of tech conferences and the investment it brings to the country. António Costa Silva, the minister of economy of Portugal, talked about the rise in investment as well as failures and the challenges that the tech industry brings.

Binance’s Zhao was the first guest to be interviewed, who shed light on current crypto trends, metaverse platforms and Web3 technologies in general. Zhao said:

“Everything is volatile, even the most lucrative tech stocks. So, yes, Bitcoin did drop from $69K to $20K, but it depends on the perspective. If you take a five-to-10-year time frame, crypto is the best-performing asset.”

Web Summit day one kicked off with a discussion about the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the future of tech. The discussion later expanded to more niche topics, including industrialization, public companies and super apps.

Don’t forget to check this article regularly to get notified about the most recent announcements from the event.

02: 20 — Cointelegraph’s Editor-in-Chief Kristina Lucrezia Cornèr hosts a panel titled “Emerging Tech Hubs: Where will the next Silicon Valley be?,” with VentureCity CEO, Laura Gonzalez-Estefani, Coelius Capital’s Zach Coelius, and Chinaccelerator’s Oscar Ramos.

12: 30 — Cointelegraph’s Gareth Jenkinson got in touch with Binance executive vice president of Europe Martin Bruncko to discuss the exchange’s plans in Europe. When asked about the recently approved Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation and how it would impact crypto exchanges, Bruncko said:

“MiCA is good news for every crypto operator, and our mission is to advance crypto adoption rather than onboarding as many users as possible. I think MiCA would help a lot with our plans for crypto advancements.”

11: 30 — Cointelegraph CEO Wes Kaplan was joined by Nicholas Johnston from Axios and Joy Robins from The Washington Post to discuss how monetization works in media.

Robins said in today’s world, advertising is not the only way to make a good revenue model and explained:

“I don’t think advertising is the dominant revenue model for news. I think the idea that only advertising can make way for a good revenue model is false, and subscription-based models have proved it.”

10: 50 — Checkout.com and Bolt founders joined CNBC’s Karen Tso to discuss the ongoing trend in the tech world, the adoption of crypto by payment processors and more.

Guillaume Pousaz, the founder of checkout.com, explained the advantages and disadvantages of being a public company:

“Being a public company forces you to be a very well-operated business. The markets are what they are, and there are not many IPOs in recent times. I have no pressure to go public, and I think people care about compounding value rather than going public or being private.”